Motivations
by TSeawright
Summary: Sigma Klim has forty-five years to save the world, but forty-five years is a long time to spend working towards anything let alone something as lofty as saving the world. As the weight on his shoulders begin to drag him down can he find it in him to stay the course?


Motivations

Sigma walked the quiet halls of Rhizome 9 with the lonely echoes of his own footsteps as his only companion. It had already been nineteen years since he first came to this empty place. At first he was amazed at how thorough Akane had been building the facility; the amount of money and manpower it must have taken made him wonder just how large her organization had become. Her power of precognition notwithstanding it was an amazing achievement. Only, it was still only a first step as Sigma had soon discovered. Already forty-nine years old and feeling the weight of his years he walked slowly into the treatment center and into the treatment pod rooms. A single metal chair stood vigil by its side.

"Hey. It's been a while." Sigma said to the pod dropping his weight on the chair. To the sleeping girl inside time hadn't passed but it really had been a while since his last visit. The first had been five years into his research. Frustrated, impatient, and more than a little lonely he dragged the chair screeching across the floor into the Treatment center. He hadn't really built anything significant other than the chromatic doors and the bracelets. Still he had visited to let her know progress was being made and they would reach their goals and they would make his forty-five year deadline.

The bodies of the Gaulems had only taken him a few years to figure out. The intelligences for each or at least two were taking a long time so he had set aside the quantum computer for now to focus on cloning. Truth be told when he first made the decision to focus on Kyle's birth it was as much practical as it was necessary. Kyle had to be born in at least the next few years or the future where he was already an adult would not come to pass. It would have meant failure. It would have meant the end of the future he, Phi, and Akane had sacrificed so much for. So he set to work solely on the birth of his son. But birth was not something so easily achieved and every dead end, every failure was another blow to his conviction.

"I was so close today, Phi. So close. But the fetus died after only a few seconds." Sigma couldn't bring himself to say it but the truth was it died as soon it was formed. He slammed his fist against the chair next to his leg. The biomechanical arm looked just like his arm did at twenty-two. It wasn't much different than his leg especially since he took care to work out every day to keep his body fit. Again, all in the name of saving an abstract future that felt like it was getting further and further away.

"Every day. Every day, Phi. Saving the world is starting to feel like such an impossible thing. I wonder if I can do it." Sigma sighed and looked up to the pod in front of him. The viewport was frosted over and Sigma wondered once more what the point of the glass was if you couldn't see through it anyway. But he could imagine; he could imagine Phi's angry face and her voice and words telling him to get a grip. That he made the doors, the bracelets, the Gaulems, and the fetus and even if the progress was slow it was still progress, and how it was too soon to give up especially with the world at stake.

"You know what they say," Phi would finish, "slow and steady to find your face."

Sigma smiled at the thought and pictured himself telling her that wasn't what they say. He sat there for a little longer telling himself Phi's imaginary words were right. Slowly he picked himself up and walked back out the door to his lab.

He swung his arm out, shattered glass, and ruined his work station in the lab. His biomechanical arm bled white from his injuries and sent pain to his brain; saying yes this is your arm and it is in pain. Such advanced technology and yet it felt so inadequate compared to what he needed. Beside him the cloning tanks bubbled undisturbed, indifferent to his outrage at another failure. It wasn't just anger though or even frustration; it was fear. Another year had past since his talk with Phi, another year of failures during which several fetuses died. This one in particular he had managed to keep it alive for longer. It was starting to grow; but no, it too had died taking a little more of Sigma with it to wherever it was fetuses went when they die before they get a chance to live. Talking with Phi again was tempting but he had so much work left to do and he didn't want to waste time. So with a heavy sigh, Sigma stooped down and picked up the glass on the floor.

Over the next month Sigma once again modified the Honolulu cloning technique and replaced the fluid in the cloning tanks hoping the new mixture would allow the fetus to become stronger. Every time he did the fetus lasted just a little bit longer. Every time it died it took another piece of him until Sigma wasn't sure he was even seeing them as lives anymore. The deaths were killing him; the hope was keeping alive; he wasn't sure if it was a good thing but he kept plodding on allowing another and another to die until finally one made it to nine and a half months in the tank. As Sigma gazed into the tank he couldn't help but think to himself how strong it seemed. It was even kicking. It was time.

Slowly Sigma drained the tank allowing his creation to be "born" at last, God willing. The thought brought a faint smile to the man's lips. Here he was playing god while praying to God, but then maybe God was all he had left of his former self. Banishing the thought, Sigma made his way closer to the tank as the baby lay on floor no longer suspended by anything. The glass separating them silently slid down and the baby didn't move. Sigma stood there staring at him and he didn't move; touched him and it didn't move; picked it up and still it didn't move. Almost mechanically he felt for a pulse but didn't find anything. Sigma closed his eyes and breathed a heavy sigh on the small body in his arms. It moved.

Sigma let out another sigh. Good god he had been here too damn long, all alone wishing for success so desperately he imagined a dead body had moved. But it moved again. Such a tiny stirring in his arms he almost missed it and dropped the baby. He could hardly believe it but there he was, little Kyle Klim lay in his arms and made soft noises and twitched his tiny appendages trying to figure out how they worked.

"Kyle." father whispered to son, "Hi..."

Sigma walked the quiet halls of Rhizome 9, his footsteps echoing powerfully off the walls. Forty-five years had passed since he first arrived here, his deadline was up. Everything was in place; Akane was already waiting and ready to play her part no matter what happened. Kyle was asleep in the pod in the garden waiting for the time he was to wake and play his part. Phi, fully defrosted and none the worse for wear, lay sleeping in Sigma's arms as they moved towards the AB rooms to await the beginning of the future.

"Lagomorph." Sigma called.

"Yes." Came the A.I's reply.

"This is an order: open the door to the AB Room and close it after me."

"Compliance."

The door made soft sliding sounds as they part then closed shut behind him. Gently he placed Phi on the ground near the corner and placed himself flat on his back in the center of the room. As he did he couldn't help but give himself a small pat on the back for everything he was able to accomplish. Then he reminded himself that was the easy part; now was the hard part. For all her power and skills; he, Phi, and Kyle were going where Akane's foresight could not reach. It was a complete black box and he was going to have to fly completely blind now. But it was alright, he wasn't afraid. After Kyle's successful birth he never went back to Phi again. Instead he worked laboriously for his son's future. Thinking back, all his years in isolation probably made him an inadequate father to begin with but every time he saw Kyle working so hard on his studies Sigma redoubled his own efforts.

Sigma Klim closed his eyes and waited for his mission to begin. He wasn't going to save the world, he was going to save his son. So he had better to his rest while he still could.


End file.
